FILE PHOTO: A sign of JP Morgan Chase Bank is seen in front of their headquarters tower in New York

BEIJING (Reuters) - JPMorgan <JPM.N> has reached agreement with its Chinese partner to increase its stake in its Chinese mutual fund venture to 100%, joining BlackRock and Neuberger Berman to grow its presence in the world's second biggest economy.

The U.S. firm's asset management arm expects to proceed with the required processes to complete the transaction to take full ownership of China International Fund Management Co. (CIFM), including seeking approval from the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC)， according to an emailed statement from JPMorgan Asset Management on Friday.

It did not provide financial details of the deal.

The moves comes as China is pushing ahead with opening up of its financial sector after the coronavirus pandemic. CSRC said on Wednesday that it has accepted applications from BlackRock <BLK.N> and Neuberger Berman to set up fully owned mutual fund units in China as the country scraps foreign ownership caps in the sector on April 1 as planned.

“We are pleased to have reached this important milestone," said Dan Watkins, J.P. Morgan Asset Management Asia Pacific's Chief Executive Officer, in the statement.

Established in 2004, Shanghai-based CIFM managed more than 150 billion yuan ($21 billion) in assets as of the end of 2019, according to the statement.

JPMorgan said last August that it had won an auction to increase its stake in CIFM to 51% from 49%.

(Reporting by Zhang Yan and Ryan Woo in Beijing; Editing by Alex Richardson and Raju Gopalakrishnan)